


Always Have a Home (With Us)

by kitkatt0430



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Catholicism, Cisco is totally making masks for everyone on Team Flash, Covid-19 pandemic, Established Relationship, Hartley and Cisco to the rescue, Hartley's parents are not the greatest, Jerrie needs a place to go while school is out, M/M, mental health, mostly about Jerrie and Hartley but Cisco gets some time too, she'd really rather not deal with her parents, televised mass, they're all neurodivergent here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-15 03:49:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29182809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitkatt0430/pseuds/kitkatt0430
Summary: In March 2020, college campuses across the United States are closing and students are going home early.  No one's quite sure if the semester will even get completed at this point.  And Jerrie Rathaway is headed back to Central City, where she'd really rather not have to deal with her parents many ongoing arguments.  Thankfully Rachel and Osgood Rathaway are not her only option.
Relationships: Cisco Ramon & Jerrie Rathaway, Cisco Ramon/Hartley Rathaway, Hartley Rathaway & Jerrie Rathaway
Comments: 4
Kudos: 13





	Always Have a Home (With Us)

**Author's Note:**

> Just a sort of slice of life thing set not quite a year ago at the start of the pandemic. It's kind of hard for me to write pandemic related stuff, but I've had some of what's in here percolating in the back of my head for a while and decided, as the anniversary of the shelter in place order in my city approaches, that it was time to get it written down.

Jerrie sees the writing on the wall the last week of February. So she goes and buys a bunch of face masks and starts wearing them early. Packs up most of her stuff so that she'll be ready to leave the dorm as soon as her grades won't suffer for it. 

First week of March, she calls her parents, just to feel out if that situation has improved any since winter break. Father had been drunk a lot during those two weeks and Christmas was an unmitigated disaster. She isn't sure how New Years went, since she'd spent the evening with Hartley and Cisco at STAR Labs finally having her suspicions that both her brother and her brother-in-law were super heroes confirmed. Which was cool. They let her have one glass of champagne at midnight and she flirted a little with Jesse Wells, who'd been visiting from a parallel Earth.

It does not, however, sound like the home situation has improved. Mostly because mother tells Jerrie that she's started looking for a town home or condo, some place she can live apart from Osgood. A trial separation. And of course they're not going to divorce, because that wasn't the Catholic way.

It'd be a lot healthier for them if they did divorce. But they were never going to listen to Jerrie on that subject. Or Hartley, for that matter. Which was a shame because, compared to their parents, Hartley clearly had his life together.

Admittedly, the comparison to Rachel and Osgood Rathaway was setting the bar awfully low these days.

Second week of March is spring break. Jerrie wants to just go ahead and drive back to Central City, but she doesn't know where to go yet. She can't afford her own place yet, not without gaining access to the trust fund her grandmother left her. And she doesn't get legal access to that until she's twenty-one. Now isn't a good time to be getting a job, so she either sucks it up and goes to her parents house and then moves out with her mother - assuming Rachel goes through with getting a condo during what is looking more and more like a global pandemic - or she calls Cisco and Hartley to see if she can impose on them.

Cisco and Hartley's apartment is a spacious two-bedroom, so there is a guest room. But it's not a lot of space if they're going to be confined to shelter in place. It might be better to go to her parent's house; at least she knows all the hidey-holes to go to when her parents are too much there.

She calls Hartley anyway.

"I think my school is going to close," she tells him when he picks up the call. "There've been two confirmed corona cases in the city already. Probably more unconfirmed."

"Yeah, we're expecting Central City to lay down a shelter in place order in the next week or so," Hartley replied. "You should come stay with me and Cisco."

Jerrie feels something unwind in her chest. "I was about to ask," she admits, relaxing. "Are you sure?"

"Considering the fiasco Christmas turned into?" Hartley sighed. "Mother says she's going get her own home away from father, but she hasn't spent much time looking yet and I'm worried she's going to decide that since there's a pandemic it's the wrong time to be separating from him. And father has been drinking more, not less. It's a bad situation and I don't want you anywhere near it. Though even if things were fine over there, I'd still be offering to have you here."

"Thanks, Hartley." She thinks about her packed bags and her masks and the long drive back to Central City. It doesn't feel so bad now that she has a place to go. "If I start driving tomorrow morning, will your guest room be ready when I get there? Or should I wait before starting out."

"It'll be ready," Hartley promised. "Cisco and I have actually already been clearing it out in anticipation of convincing you to come stay here."

Awesome. Her brother was awesome. "I'm gonna go buy snacks for the road. I'll give you a call in the morning when before I head out."

* * *

When the first cases of Corona virus in the US were announced, Hartley's first thought was that Seattle wasn't all that far from Star City. It was apparently also Caitlin's first thought because she calls up Team Arrow and tells them that they have to make modifications to their vigilante uniforms and that if they don't she'll let Frost go freeze their asses off because the coming global pandemic was no joke. Rene and Curtis promised to bench anyone who wouldn't follow the rules, though how much of that was them taking the virus threat seriously and how much was them being legitimately terrified of Frost's ice powers Hartley really wasn't sure.

Cisco and Hartley are already essentially retired from the field, save for the big multi-verse ending fights and other world threatening catastrophes. The coming pandemic isn't something they can fight, so they concentrate on alerting their allies across the multi-verse that Earth-1 is on the brink of a global pandemic and they should be considered quarantined for now. There are offers of assistance, which Cisco hopes will translate to help developing a vaccine at some point. Or even an anti-serum. But for now there's not really much anyone outside Earth-1 can do to help.

They start reorganizing the apartment too. Anything they've been sitting on that needs to be donated is dropped off at the correct centers and they go through the fridge and pantry with a fine tooth comb in order to throw out anything that is past the expiration date. That gives them room to start stocking up on other goods, preferably before everyone else does and the great panic starts. The last thing either of them wants is to be standing in line for an hour just to find out there's no toilet paper left in the store. And Cisco's visions tell them that's a very likely possibility.

Hartley also starts working on clearing out their guest room. 

("So I was thinking that with how things are with my parents, we should ask Jerrie to come stay with us once her school inevitably starts sending students home."

"Okay."

"I know we don't have a lot of space right now, but honestly once things calm down this wouldn't be a bad time for us to finally start looking at houses like we were talking about last year..."

"Sweetie," Cisco tapped Hartley's nose and grinned in amusement when Hartley automatically scrunched his nose up in response. "I said 'okay' already. I'd love for Jerrie to come stay with us. And I'm all for looking at houses in a few months when hopefully some of the initial pandemic panic calms down."

"Oh, right, okay, that's..." Hartley sighed in relief and carefully snagged Cisco's hand in order to kiss the finger that had booped him. "I'm just really... worried about her right now."

"I know," Cisco murmured, drawing Hartley into a hug.)

The closet first, followed by the desk, the night stand, and pretty much everything else that they kept in there that wasn't the furniture, twin bed sheets, blankets, or pillows. Some of it they move to storage at STAR Labs, though some of it does get carefully redistributed in the apartment itself.

Thus there was plenty of space for all of Jerrie's stuff - including things she might want to grab from their parents' house, which Cisco could easily breach her over to pick up without Rachel or Osgood Rathaway ever even noticing. Jerrie calls right as Hartley's holding his cell phone and contemplating calling her, so honestly their timing is spot on. And she wants to come home to him and to Cisco, not to Rachel and Osgood and that just...

It makes Hartley so happy he thinks he might burst. 

* * *

Jerrie likes driving the highways between cities. It's peaceful and scenic. City traffic, not so much.

She arrives at Central City late in the evening after a full day of driving and gets off the highway pretty much as soon as possible. She'd rather deal with frequent traffic lights then rush hour traffic. Especially when rush hour traffic has the addition of people panicking over dwindling toilet paper supplies at the grocery stores. It takes her another forty-five minutes to reach Hartley and Cisco's apartment after getting off the highway, but Jerrie suspects the highway would've been worse. And had more honking cars, which is bad for her auditory processing issues.

Once parked in the second space reserved for Hartley and Cisco's apartment, Jerrie leaves the majority of her stuff in the car. The three of them can come back for it later. She does grab an easy to carry duffel bag, however, and checks that her face mask is on right before heading towards the elevator. The parking garage is fairly empty and Jerrie is able to ride up the elevator alone. She's only been to the apartment a handful of times, but her feet take her unerringly to apartment number 319. 

Hartley answers the door with a bright and cheerful cloth mask on his face. Red with various dancing Snoopy dogs all over it. Much nicer than the generic allergy mask Jerrie'd picked up from the store. Cisco must've made it since he likes to sew. She hopes there's some of that fabric left because it's cute and she'd like one too.

It suddenly feels, however, like everything is happening so fast. It's all changing and she'll never keep up. Even though she knows, rationally, she's actually running ahead of the curve right now and she has support to help her keep up. It's only getting to her now because she's some place safe where she can stop and rest. 

Thankfully, Hartley doesn't appear offended that instead of saying hello, Jerrie just sort of bursts into tears.

"Come on in, Jer," Hartley says, carefully guiding her over the threshold and into the apartment. "May I hug you?"

She nods effusively as the door shuts behind her and they both take off their masks as she buries herself in his arms. She feels safe and warm and loved; it makes her so grateful she could come here to her brother instead of where her parents are.

In the midst of everything else, this at least feels like home.

* * *

Cisco waited with nervous impatience until Jerrie was ready for him. She was already overwhelmed, so he didn't want to make it worse, but... he wanted to know if she liked the masks he'd made for her. If they were a good fit and comfortable and didn't mess with any sensory issues. The first mask pattern he'd tried was an accordion style with folds so that it stretched to reach the nose and chin. Hartley could wear it, but Cisco could not. Drove him nuts being so overly conscious of the folds over his face as he moved and talked and breathed.

So most of the masks Cisco had made were flat and fitted, elastic stretching back to loop over the wearer's ears. And he'd made quite a few out of spare quilting squares. More than the three of them alone really needed, so he'd gifted a number of them already to Joe and Cecile, making tiny versions that could comfortably fit little Jenna's face. Caitlin would get the next ones he made - made to suit both her aesthetics and Frosts - unless Jerrie needed him to make a different sort of mask for her...

"I like the Snoopy fabric," Jerrie said, holding up the first double sided mask. Red with Snoopy dancing across one side and blue with Snoopy doing his World War I flying ace thing on the other. 

Cisco had used a lot of matching fabric for Hartley and Jerrie's masks; he'd thought they'd enjoy it. 

"Looks nice, Cisco." She tried that one on first, one side and then the other, before systematically going through the rest. "Comfy too. The fabric's soft."

"So they're all a good fit? If any of them need modifying or replacing, I've totally got plenty of fabric to experiment with." Cisco bounced a little, anxiously, and wished he had time to gnaw on a red vine. But they were about to head down to bring up the first load of Jerrie's stuff. Which meant he needed to put his own mask on.

"They're perfect." Jerrie put the Snoopy mask back on so that she matched with Hartley's choice of masks. "Thank you, Cisco."

"You're welcome," he said, putting on one of his own fitted masks - this one with brightly colored frogs all over it. Once they were all kitted out and Hartley'd snagged his keys, Cisco reached for the front door and held it open for the other two.

"How many trips do you think it'll take to get it all up?" Hartley was asking.

"Two. I think. Nothing really needs two people to carry it, so we should be good with two." Jerrie told them. "One suitcase, my tv, laptop bag, one box of assorted books and stuff, one box of bedding, and a box with my PS3 and video games in it. And my pillows."

"Sounds like that'll make two trips exactly," Cisco agreed.

And it did take exactly that. The elevator got a little crowded on the way up each time, but the second time they put a load down in the guest room was the last. Then it was time for the soup Hartley'd left simmering in the slow cooker for them.

* * *

After dinner, Jerrie goes to the guest room and starts setting up her stuff. The desk has a spare monitor on it for her to use, so she hooks up her laptop to that and starts playing some quiet music. Notebooks and coloring books go into the empty drawers, along with pens and pencils and her TI-30 calculator. School books go on the top shelf of the three shelf book case by the desk, her fiction books go on the second shelf. The bottom shelf gets the PS3 and she carefully winds the cords around so they're out of the way, using little command hooks to keep it neat. The tv goes on top of the book case, easily angled to be seen anywhere in the room. 

Then she puts away her clothes in the closet. There's a set of plastic drawers in there for the clothing she can't hang up and space above to put her two spare soft blankets, meant for blanket nests in the cold winter. She folds up the comforter already on the bed and stows that with her soft blankets. It nice, but it's not hers and she needs to make this room hers for as long as she's in it. The sheets are perfect, though, and she stores her two sheet sets away in the linen closet in the bathroom where she knew Hartley and Cisco kept the other bed sheets. Then her galaxy swirl comforter goes atop the bed, followed by her pillows - the spare ones going on the floor with her big floor pillow - and her weighted blanket folded over the foot of the bed, in easy reach if she wants it in the middle of the night. Her lap desk gets tucked in the gap between the nightstand and the bed frame while her two stuffed animals - one of which doubles as squish stim - join the pillows on top of the bed. Her Bose headphone hook over the headboard and then, last but not least, the boxes stack neatly in the closet, converting into shoe storage next to the pop up hamper.

Looking around when she was done, Jerrie smiled and felt herself breathe a little easier. It's more room than she had in the dorms, since she didn't have to share the bedroom. She likes the setup; it'll be a comfortable room to do remote learning from once her school has that ready. The mattress is comfortable, though she wishes she could've brought the one from her dorm with her. Her roommate was out, though, so she could probably ask Cisco about opening a breach to move it to the apartment in the morning - it was hers and not the building's after all.

For now, though... for now she just wanted to sleep. It had been a long, exhausting day. 

* * *

In the morning, Hartley wakes up alone in bed to the sound of a breach open in the guest room. He pulls on his robe over his pajamas and blearily wanders through the jack-and-jill bathroom to see that Cisco and Jerrie are wrestling a mattress through the portal in space and time.

"You could've woken me up to help too," Hartley said, watching in amusement and offering no actual help until they actually asked for it.

"We got this," Cisco insisted, having to concentrate both on the mattress he was carrying and on keeping the shiny breach open.

"You can help when we send the mattress on the bed to your storage room in STAR Labs," Jerrie told him.

"I'll go make some tea first. Anyone else want some?"

"Yes," the duo chorused. 

Three cups of Paris tea later and they actually changed out the mattresses. Cisco did a lot better when he only had to hold the breach open, not go back and forth through it helping to carry something heavy. And they were all ready for breakfast by then.

Which was when Jerrie reminded them it was Sunday.

"All masses are canceled, which is good because I wouldn't be going to church in a pandemic anyway," Jerrie said. "But there's an online streaming service that does televised mass. I use it when I'm sick or have a bad headache, usually."

"Stick it on the big tv," Cisco told her. "We'll do mass with you."

Jerrie smiled shyly. "Thanks." She bumped shoulders with Hartley. "I remember when we were little and had to skip mass, we'd do our own with our favorite bible passages and my Precious Moments Order of the Mass book and grape juice and crackers for the Eucharist."

"Well, we don't have any grape juice, but we've got crackers and an open bottle of red wine. We could put a sip of wine each in three shot glasses and have that be our stand in for Communion," Hartley offered, putting an arm around her shoulders as Jerrie leaned into him.

"Sounds good," Jerrie decided.

"I agree, though we're totally not telling my mamá about our stand in Communion. I think she'd find it a little sacrilegious since it's not getting blessed by the priest in person," Cisco said, already going for the shot glasses.

"It's the thought that counts," Jerry declared. "And our secret." She pulled away and headed to the tv to start up the game computer hooked up to the screen and Hartley took that as his cue to find the crackers.

"You should text Sophia the link to the streaming service," Hartley advised Cisco.

"Oh, I am. She's probably already found a few, but it'll make her feel better to know we'll be doing mass with Jerrie too." Cisco pulled the wine bottle from the fridge and added a splash to each shot glass before putting it away again. Then he pecked Hartley on the cheek. "I think tomorrow I'm going to give my therapist a call and set up a few appointments. I think my anxiety is going to get worse for a while with... everything."

Hartley nodded. "Yeah. Let me know if I can help, okay?" He waited for Cisco's nodded of agreement before taking the crackers and one of the shot glasses into the other room.

Once they were all settled and had the shot glasses and crackers laid out to wait for the Liturgy of the Eucharist, Jerrie started the stream. And then paused it again so Cisco could go grab his tablet and look up the day's readings so they'd be able to follow along during the Liturgy of the Word.

It felt kind of nice to be doing something so normal, even if it wasn't in the usual way. 


End file.
